Important Guantanamo Bay events at to be held soon

This past week, President Bush signed into law the Military Commissions Act of 2006, on the exact 135th anniversary (to the day) that President Grant suspended Habeas Corpus in South Carolina to disperse the Ku Klux Klan in order that the newly freed slaves might exercise their right to vote. Arguably, the measure was unsuccessful then and can only do more harm than good today.

President Bush ironically called the bill “a way to deliver justice to the terrorists we have captured” (NYT). Whatever that means, the de facto suspension of Habeas Corpus will affect Americans more than prisoners in America’s prisons. Our principle defense against imprisonment without charge and trial without defense has been thrown away for basically no good reason because the changes enacted by the bill do not really entail better compliance with the Geneva Conventions.

There are over 450 prisoners currently in Guantanamo Bay, any of whom can now be tried in military tribunals using evidence obtained through coercion. Although the bill outlaws certain forms of torture, cruel or inhumane treatment, what exactly is defined as unlawful is still yet to be determined by the President himself. The new law denies federal courts jurisdiction to hear petitions from detainees for writs of Habeas Corpus, meaning that terror suspects cannot go to court to challenge the constitutionality of their confinement.

Guantanamo Bay prisoners have suffered many more injustices during the War on Terror. According to the L.A. Times, the military quietly stopped assigning Muslim chaplains to the base in Cuba more than two years ago, after one, Army captain James Yee, was targeted in a controversial espionage investigation. This issue has been very important to Muslim advocacy groups in America, especially as the month of Ramadan draws to a close.

Muslim prisoners have been portrayed in the media as crazy rioters, three of whom have committed suicide in the past three months. It is imperative that we look to the insensitivity of prison guards and their denial of religious rights as the cause of this instability.

The Muslim Students’ Association, with support from all six departments classified as social and behavioral sciences, the WSA, President Bennet and Amnesty International are excited to bring a very important voice on prisoner detention at Guantanamo Bay to campus. Chaplain James Yee, former Muslim Chaplain at Guantanamo Bay who was falsely accused of spying and then later found innocent, will speak on campus on Monday October 30th.

Chaplain Yee has recently authored an excellent book, For God and Country: Faith and Patriotism Under Fire, and will offer his informed opinions on a whole host of issues from the war on terrorism to Muslim life in the United States post 9/11. Chaplain Yee will provide a particularly unique perspective to our understanding as he was both witness to misconduct within the prison as well as a detainee while his case was investigated.

In addition, the Muslim Students’ Association urges you to attend the presentation of the film, “The Road to Guantanamo”, on two separate dates before Chaplain Yee comes to campus. This compelling film tells the story of three British Muslims of Pakistani descent who return to Pakistan for a wedding, decide to take an adventure across the border into Afghanistan where they then become swept up in the American led invasion of 2001.

This docudrama reenacts the conditions in prisons in both Northern Alliance Afghanistan and in Cuba under American surveillance and is based on the experiences of these three men who suffered for three years in Guantanamo without charge. This film will hopefully provide the images to contextualize Chaplain Yee’s lecture as well as illustrate the hardships faced by prisoners.

The film “The Road to Guantanamo” will be shown twice. First on Thursday (10/26) at 8PM in Shanklin 107, and again on Sunday (10/29) at 8PM in the Goldsmith Family Cinema (this is the film series location). Also, don’t miss Chaplain Yee’s lecture on Monday October 30th at 7:30PM in the Memorial Chapel. Attendance to both the film and lecture is free of charge.